ALBERT

Description: A high-dispersion spectrum of Comet C/1999S4 (LINEAR) was obtained in the optical region with the high-dispersion spectrograph on the Subaru telescope when the comet was 0.863 astronomical units from the Sun before its disintegration. We obtained high signal-to-noise ratio emission lines of the cometary NH2 bands from which an ortho-to-para ratio (OPR) of 3.33 +/- 0.07 was derived on the basis of a fluorescence excitation model. Assuming that cometary NH2 mainly originates from ammonia through photodissociation, the derived OPR of NH2 molecules should reflect that of ammonia, which provides information on the environment of molecular formation or condensation and of the thermal history of cometary ices. Assuming that the OPR of ammonia in comets was unchanged in the nucleus, the derived spin temperature of ammonia (28 +/- 2 kelvin) suggests that a formation region of the cometary ammonia ice was between the orbit of Saturn and that of Uranus in the solar nebula.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Kawakita, H -- Watanabe, J -- Ando, H -- Aoki, W -- Fuse, T -- Honda, S -- Izumiura, H -- Kajino, T -- Kambe, E -- Kawanomoto, S -- Noguchi, K -- Okita, K -- Sadakane, K -- Sato, B -- Takada-Hidai, M -- Takeda, Y -- Usuda, T -- Watanabe, E -- Yoshida, M -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2001 Nov 2;294(5544):1089-91.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Gunma Astronomical Observatory, 6860-86 Nakayama, Takayama, Agatsuma, Gunma 377-0702, Japan. kawakita@astron.pref.gunma.jp〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11691989" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: On 4 July 2005, many observatories around the world and in space observed the collision of Deep Impact with comet 9P/Tempel 1 or its aftermath. This was an unprecedented coordinated observational campaign. These data show that (i) there was new material after impact that was compositionally different from that seen before impact; (ii) the ratio of dust mass to gas mass in the ejecta was much larger than before impact; (iii) the new activity did not last more than a few days, and by 9 July the comet's behavior was indistinguishable from its pre-impact behavior; and (iv) there were interesting transient phenomena that may be correlated with cratering physics.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Meech, K J -- Ageorges, N -- A'Hearn, M F -- Arpigny, C -- Ates, A -- Aycock, J -- Bagnulo, S -- Bailey, J -- Barber, R -- Barrera, L -- Barrena, R -- Bauer, J M -- Belton, M J S -- Bensch, F -- Bhattacharya, B -- Biver, N -- Blake, G -- Bockelee-Morvan, D -- Boehnhardt, H -- Bonev, B P -- Bonev, T -- Buie, M W -- Burton, M G -- Butner, H M -- Cabanac, R -- Campbell, R -- Campins, H -- Capria, M T -- Carroll, T -- Chaffee, F -- Charnley, S B -- Cleis, R -- Coates, A -- Cochran, A -- Colom, P -- Conrad, A -- Coulson, I M -- Crovisier, J -- deBuizer, J -- Dekany, R -- de Leon, J -- Dello Russo, N -- Delsanti, A -- DiSanti, M -- Drummond, J -- Dundon, L -- Etzel, P B -- Farnham, T L -- Feldman, P -- Fernandez, Y R -- Filipovic, M D -- Fisher, S -- Fitzsimmons, A -- Fong, D -- Fugate, R -- Fujiwara, H -- Fujiyoshi, T -- Furusho, R -- Fuse, T -- Gibb, E -- Groussin, O -- Gulkis, S -- Gurwell, M -- Hadamcik, E -- Hainaut, O -- Harker, D -- Harrington, D -- Harwit, M -- Hasegawa, S -- Hergenrother, C W -- Hirst, P -- Hodapp, K -- Honda, M -- Howell, E S -- Hutsemekers, D -- Iono, D -- Ip, W-H -- Jackson, W -- Jehin, E -- Jiang, Z J -- Jones, G H -- Jones, P A -- Kadono, T -- Kamath, U W -- Kaufl, H U -- Kasuga, T -- Kawakita, H -- Kelley, M S -- Kerber, F -- Kidger, M -- Kinoshita, D -- Knight, M -- Lara, L -- Larson, S M -- Lederer, S -- Lee, C-F -- Levasseur-Regourd, A C -- Li, J Y -- Li, Q-S -- Licandro, J -- Lin, Z-Y -- Lisse, C M -- LoCurto, G -- Lovell, A J -- Lowry, S C -- Lyke, J -- Lynch, D -- Ma, J -- Magee-Sauer, K -- Maheswar, G -- Manfroid, J -- Marco, O -- Martin, P -- Melnick, G -- Miller, S -- Miyata, T -- Moriarty-Schieven, G H -- Moskovitz, N -- Mueller, B E A -- Mumma, M J -- Muneer, S -- Neufeld, D A -- Ootsubo, T -- Osip, D -- Pandea, S K -- Pantin, E -- Paterno-Mahler, R -- Patten, B -- Penprase, B E -- Peck, A -- Petitas, G -- Pinilla-Alonso, N -- Pittichova, J -- Pompei, E -- Prabhu, T P -- Qi, C -- Rao, R -- Rauer, H -- Reitsema, H -- Rodgers, S D -- Rodriguez, P -- Ruane, R -- Ruch, G -- Rujopakarn, W -- Sahu, D K -- Sako, S -- Sakon, I -- Samarasinha, N -- Sarkissian, J M -- Saviane, I -- Schirmer, M -- Schultz, P -- Schulz, R -- Seitzer, P -- Sekiguchi, T -- Selman, F -- Serra-Ricart, M -- Sharp, R -- Snell, R L -- Snodgrass, C -- Stallard, T -- Stecklein, G -- Sterken, C -- Stuwe, J A -- Sugita, S -- Sumner, M -- Suntzeff, N -- Swaters, R -- Takakuwa, S -- Takato, N -- Thomas-Osip, J -- Thompson, E -- Tokunaga, A T -- Tozzi, G P -- Tran, H -- Troy, M -- Trujillo, C -- Van Cleve, J -- Vasundhara, R -- Vazquez, R -- Vilas, F -- Villanueva, G -- von Braun, K -- Vora, P -- Wainscoat, R J -- Walsh, K -- Watanabe, J -- Weaver, H A -- Weaver, W -- Weiler, M -- Weissman, P R -- Welsh, W F -- Wilner, D -- Wolk, S -- Womack, M -- Wooden, D -- Woodney, L M -- Woodward, C -- Wu, Z-Y -- Wu, J-H -- Yamashita, T -- Yang, B -- Yang, Y-B -- Yokogawa, S -- Zook, A C -- Zauderer, A -- Zhao, X -- Zhou, X -- Zucconi, J-M -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2005 Oct 14;310(5746):265-9. Epub 2005 Sep 8.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2680 Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16150977" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: The impact cratering process on a comet is controversial but holds the key for interpreting observations of the Deep Impact collision with comet 9P/Tempel 1. Mid-infrared data from the Cooled Mid-Infrared Camera and Spectrometer (COMICS) of the Subaru Telescope indicate that the large-scale dust plume ejected by the impact contained a large mass (approximately 10(6) kilograms) of dust and formed two wings approximately +/-45 degrees from the symmetric center, both consistent with gravity as the primary control on the impact and its immediate aftermath. The dust distribution in the inner part of the plume, however, is inconsistent with a pure gravity control and implies that evaporation and expansion of volatiles accelerated dust.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Sugita, S -- Ootsubo, T -- Kadono, T -- Honda, M -- Sako, S -- Miyata, T -- Sakon, I -- Yamashita, T -- Kawakita, H -- Fujiwara, H -- Fujiyoshi, T -- Takato, N -- Fuse, T -- Watanabe, J -- Furusho, R -- Hasegawa, S -- Kasuga, T -- Sekiguchi, T -- Kinoshita, D -- Meech, K J -- Wooden, D H -- Ip, W H -- A'Hearn, M F -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2005 Oct 14;310(5746):274-8. Epub 2005 Sep 15.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Complexity Science and Engineering, University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Chiba, Japan. sugita@k.u-tokyo.ac.jp〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16166476" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉